Bed Bugs Send a St. Petersburg Woman Packing

WTSP.com (St. Petersburg, FL)Tuesday, July 3, 2012

ST. PETERSBURG, FL - On June 4, 10 News showed you the problem
at MLF Towers located in Downtown St. Petersburg. Residents were
complaining of being bitten while they were sleeping. Some even had
to get entirely new wardrobes because the bed bugs had crawled into
their clothes.

But it's not just there -- 10 News has now received reports of bed
bugs spreading across the street from MLF Towers to the Lutheran
Apartments on 1st Avenue South and all the way to City Place Senior
Living at 298 8th St. North in St. Petersburg.

84-year-old Jane Martin says she misses her apartment at the
complex. "It was heartbreaking. I had a beautiful apartment." But
she says what she doesn't miss is her uninvited guests.

She says, "I got up to go to the bathroom and I looked at my bed,
saw the bugs, put them in a bottle, took them down to the office
and showed them."

Martin says that was two weeks ago and even though the apartment
complex hired a professional to treat her apartment, she says the
bed bugs became unbearable. "I couldn't go to bed. I had to sleep
in a chair for about 10 days."

But Friday was her breaking point. "Over the weekend, I must have
filled a dumpster downstairs throwing stuff out. Clothes, blankets,
sheets, everything."

Martin says she felt she had no choice but to pack up and move out.
She wishes the apartment management had been more aggressive about
beating back the bed bugs. "I was very disappointed."

City Place Senior Living is only about two years old. Mayor Bill
Foster was at the grand opening since the City of St. Petersburg
provided a half a million dollar low interest loan so that it could
be built.

10 News is hoping for comment from apartment managers about the
allegations in the coming days.